Steamed Layer Cake

I used to make this when I was still working (I have since retired 6 years ago). I had a colleague who also loved baking. We used to bake and bring our goodies to our workplace and share with our fellow colleagues during coffee break. She and I would swap recipes and this is one of hers.

Today, I decided to tweaked the recipe slightly. I used rose flavour paste and rose petals instead of vanilla essence. I reduced the amount of sugar.

Ingredients:

A

200g salted butter, softened

120g caster sugar (I used 80g)

5 dessertspoons condensed milk (Spoon used for eating rice)

3 dessertspoons evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence (I used 2 teaspoons rose flavour paste and some petals)

B

5 egg whites and 5 egg yolks

100g caster sugar

C

170g plain flour (I used cake flour)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pink colouring

Method:

1. Line and grease a 20cm-tin. Prepare steamer and bring to a boil at medium heat.

2. Cream butter and sugar till pale and creamy, then add both milk and mix till combined. Add in vanilla essence if not using rose flavour paste.

3. Whisk egg whites and sugar till it peaks but not dry. Add egg yolks one at a time and whisk at medium high.

4. Mix in egg mixture alternately with sifted flour and baking powder in three portions to butter mixture.

5. Divide the cake mixture into 2 portions. Add rose flavour paste and petals and pink colour to one portion and leave the other portion plain. If using vanilla essence, then just add colour to one portion.

6. By now the steamer should be ready. Spoon a layer of plain mixture and steam for 4 minutes.

Alternate the coloured layers. After the last layer, continue to steam for another 10 minutes or when skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.

The cake is soft and moist but unfortunately the rose flavour did not come through and so it tasted more like "kai tan kou"! I think I will stick to vanilla.

I must apologise for the uneven layers which are unsightly and even the little rosette failed to enhance the look. Grrr.....